Another 3dfx Interview

[Mikewarrior2]

Bubba interview at VE

Intersting stuff from Bubba yet again. I find it interesting that htey are insulting nvidia for missing a product cycle, when the V5 was at least 7 months delayed from original release date, and teh v5-6k will be at least 10 months late....

3dfxALF need not come here and defend his little buddy.



Mike

 

[NFS4]

Well, at least nVidia had the Ultra to fill in the gap of the NV20 delay

 

[PG]

Is the NV20 really delayed at all? I know they need to wait for the DX8 to be set in stone before they can release the NV20. But also, there was TNT, then TNT2, and finally TNT2 ultra. Now we have geforce, geforce2, and geforce2 ultra. What is different? I don't quite understand why everyone says NV20 is delayed. It seems nvidia is following a pattern here. Of course you don't have to like the pattern, but that is a different thing.

PG

 

[dawheat]

<Nothing Nivida does will change what we are doing with the 6000. What is clear is that they missed their product cycle. This is the third regurgitation of GeForce! It was our belief that a product cycle meant introducing a new product. How many times Nvidia expect the consumer to buy the same product?>

lol- i love the selective memory of PR folks. This is the 3rd regurgitation of the Geforce vs 1 product from 3dfx thus far? And if you want to get anal- the V5 is simply a refreshed V3 with a few tweaks and multichip capability, but the GTS is a GF1 with a few tweaks and a good deal faster. But in any case- PR is always PR - just to spite bubba i kinda wish Nvidia had come out with the NV20 this fall and I'd love to read the spin he puts on it- &quot;Nvidia again and again is forcing the consumer to buy outrageously priced cards- we are pushing to governement to stop their rapery of the consumer.&quot;

And from aceshardware: &quot;Anyway, nVidia executes very well, so it is likely that the Geforce 3 will have little competition when it comes out around Christmas.&quot;

 

[Finality]

So what the V5 6000 is a year late now?

 

[Sohcan]

PG: The TNT2 and TNT2 Ultra were released at roughly the same time. NVidia has been following a 6-month product cycle for some time, with new architectures in the fall (Riva128, TNT, GeForce) and architecture refreshes in the spring (Riva128 ZX, TNT2/TNT2 Ultra, GeForce2). NV20 was due to be the new architecture for this fall, but it has been delayed (personally, I think the &quot;waiting for DX8&quot; is crap....they're probably waiting for TSMC to get its .13u fab ready). Instead we have a fall refresh of a spring refresh, the GF2 Ultra.

 

[thorin]

Yawn, Bubba's interviews are always out in left field somewhere. I think he's insecure about 3dfxs hardware so the only thing he can do is try to slam nVidia for things that 3dfx actually does about 3x more or 3x worse.

I don't think I'm going to bother reading anymore interviews with Bubba.

&quot;NV20 was due to be the new architecture for this fall, but it has been delayed (personally, I think the &quot;waiting for DX8&quot; is crap....they're probably waiting for TSMC to get its .13u fab ready). Instead we have a fall refresh of a spring refresh, the GF2 Ultra. &quot;

Even if it is late and/or was due out this fall. Do we see anything from 3dfx touching the Ultra? or even the GF2 (in pure speed) yet? (NO!). And the v5 6k keeps getting pushed farther and farther along. I was originally supposed to be out with the v5 5.5k, then supposedly 2 months after the v5 5.5k, and now it won't make it till late Oct or early Nov (if 3dfx is lucky). Why should nVidia rush to get something out the door when there's no competition? Why not keep it in-house prefect the product and the drivers (which always blow 3dfxs away anyway).

Thorin

 

[Noriaki]

The NV20 was delayed I think. For what reason who knows? Maybe it was waiting for .13um. But for 3dfx to call nVidia down for delays!

Just a note: Don't buy into that crap about needing to wait for DX8..the Radeon has features that aren't supported in DX7, and I think the GF2 does as well, though I can't recall any specifics for the GF2.

I'll just quote to save myself typing:

&quot; The TNT2 and TNT2 Ultra were released at roughly the same time. NVidia has been following a 6-month product cycle for some time, with new architectures in the fall (Riva128, TNT, GeForce) and architecture refreshes in the spring (Riva128 ZX, TNT2/TNT2 Ultra, GeForce2). NV20 was due to be the new architecture for this fall, but it has been delayed. &quot;

nVidia has been quite exact with their 6/6 new arch./refresh. The NV20 has been delayed for whatever reason. Not that they need anything faster than the GF2 Ultra it will take the Radeon and 5500 to the butcher's, the non-Ultra does that.

There is a posiblity the 6000 could take the Ultra because it's got a higher base fill rate (1.66 vs 1.0 Gigapixels) but multitexturing is so prevelant now that I think it's safe to measure by dual textured pixels so we get 1.66 vs 2.0, but the 6000 still has a memory bandwidth edge. But still, who knows when the 6000 will show up...I think nVidia knows that there is little to threaten the GF2 at least until Rampage shows up and doesn't need to bury 3dfx further with the NV20, they will save it until more is known about Rampage.

That's what I'd do if I were them. Sucks from our viewpoint, but it will make them the most money.


Edit:


<< Yawn, Bubba's interviews are always out in left field somewhere. I think he's insecure about 3dfxs hardware so the only thing he can do is try to slam nVidia for things that 3dfx actually does about 3x more or 3x worse. >>



It's called small man syndrome or something like that

 

[thorin]

Noriaki
&quot;It's called small man syndrome or something like that&quot;

Heh, That's exactly what we're seeing here (in the interview)

Thorin

 

[Rudee]

&quot;..The Voodoo5 6000 is still a 4 chip, 512-bit interface monster with 128MB of RAM and over 10.6 GB of memory bandwidth. It will regain the hands-down performance crown for us.&quot;

It may give you the performance crown for a couple of months - maybe. Too bad nobody will be available to afford to buy one, and end up buying a lower priced Nvida card that performs similar.

Bubba is still a PR disgrace.

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

The Scott Sellers interview 3dfx Gamers did a week or so ago was very good. 3dfx should leave the PR to its chip developers, rather then the damn PR team.

 

[Sunner]

Is it just me, or is AMD and Intel much more &quot;mature&quot; in their interviews than GFX companies, and especially 3dfx?

I mean some time ago there was an interview with some Intel dude, basically he commended AMD for executing very well and having a good products, though pointed out(of course) that he still believed Intel had a supperior product, and would continue to.

Maybe 3dfx should hire that guy.

 

[Czar]

Arrggg, plese someone remove this man from 3dfx paylist.

 

[Czar]

<< 3dfx -- Well, it would be really doubtful that they don?t catch on. Certainly both technologies have a long way to go before they ?completely? becoming a ?standard? in the industry. Given that part of our T-Buffer technology is using Full Scene Anti-aliasing (which every game already supports), I happen to know that one of those technologies has, in part, become a standard already. The other technology was supposed to be a standard two Christmas?s ago but that is another story?. >>



bleeeh, ok, first they said that FSAA was just a part of the T-Buffer, then they saw that no one would use the T-Buffer and the only usable feture would be FSAA, then they removed it from the T-Buffer, so the cards had FSAA and T-Buffer. Now FSAA is a part of the T-Buffer again. And then he bashes T&amp;L, at least T&amp;L has some support the T-Buffer like 3dfx marketing says it is does not include FSAA, and FSAA doesnt need support, its just on and slows the card down.



<< Voodoo Extreme -- What are your thoughts on the Raedon's design? Its numbers are looking sweet!


3dfx -- ATI put a great deal of work into Radeon. It has bandwidth issues and certainly has issues with its 16-bit rendering. ATI focused a great deal on their 32-bit color. The cold fact is that the majority of games out there are still 16-bit only although 32-bit is becoming more popular. It seems their FSAA was an after-thought. If I were a Radeon owner I would certainly be concerned about drivers too. I hearing a great deal about bad 32-bit textures.


On the Macintosh side, their board does not exist yet. They have already announced they have no support for FSAA on the Mac and I can tell you that finding 32-bit games on the Mac side is really difficult. So Macintosh owners that get Radeon will be stuck with 16-bit rendering for the vast majority of games with no FSAA. After seeing our Voodoo5 with our fabulous 16-bit (and 32-bit) rendering with FSAA running, seeing bad 16-bit quality coupled with no FSAA is a big tough pill to swallow.


ATI has a nice design with T&amp;L (still not found on more than a handful of games and just like Nvidia- it is better with static demos than geometry-driven dynamic games that need vertices flushed often). >>



Even though he asks about the Radeon he still bashes nVidia, and also he bashes ATI. WTF. A good PR guy would just say that it has its merrits and flaws but not get to deep into the matter. Look at how he does it, he starts by trashing the Radeon and then glorifies his Voodoo5, because of this dumb people like Bubba will think that the Voodoo5 is much better than the Radeon.



<< 3dfx -- Nothing Nivida does will change what we are doing with the 6000. What is clear is that they missed their product cycle. This is the third regurgitation of GeForce! It was our belief that a product cycle meant introducing a new product. How many times Nvidia expect the consumer to buy the same product?

Now that Nvidia has missed the product cycle with NV20, we plan to forge ahead. The Voodoo5 6000 is still a 4 chip, 512-bit interface monster with 128MB of RAM and over 10.6 GB of memory bandwidth. It will regain the hands-down performance crown for us. >>



HELLO 3dfx, Voodoo1 and Voodoo2 were the same products, Banshee and Voodoo3 were the same products and were identical to the Voodoo1 and 2 in the 3d part. And whats with nvidia missing a product cycle, remember when 3dfx said that the Voodoo4, Voodoo5 5500 and Voodoo5 6000 would come out before last christmas?



<< Voodoo Extreme -- Is the next-gen 3dfx part still looking to be released by X-Mas? We ask as, nVidia claims their will be out by then (most likely).

3dfx -- We are on schedule for our next generation part. I can?t offer you more than that. There is certainly a cycle and we are on schedule. GF2 Ultra is Nvidia next generation product. They missed the product cycle with NV20. >>



What has this question have to do about some people thinking that nVidia missed a product cycle. Rumors say that the NV20 will be here before christmas and rumors say that Rampage will be here next easter.

Also I´d like to say that VE asks realy stupid questions, they mostly asks about other companies and other products than those 3dfx makes. A PR is supposed to talk about their own products and no more, cant nVidia and ATI now sue 3dfx for this?

 

[Hardware]

<< bleeeh, ok, first they said that FSAA was just a part of the T-Buffer, then they saw that no one would use the T-Buffer and the only usable feture would be FSAA, then they removed it from the T-Buffer, so the cards had FSAA and T-Buffer. Now FSAA is a part of the T-Buffer again. And then he bashes T&amp;L, at least T&amp;L has some support the T-Buffer like 3dfx marketing says it is does not include FSAA, and FSAA doesnt need support, its just on and slows the card down. >>



True 3dfx is today a piece of crap!
When the NV20 at chrismas is out the 3dfx coffin is finaly nailed.

 

[3dfxAlf]

I've notified Bubba of the sites where people don't seem to have liked his interview. FYI, the feedback is definitely not all negative. As for his defense, I have to say that I don't see a problem with answering questions. And the questions did ask about the competiton, after all. Apart from that, that's all I can really say on the matter. I'm not really interested in arguing the points... gotta check other posts and try and make myself useful.

 

[NFS4]

Hey Alf, just posted your latest interview just seconds ago here in GH

 

[Mem]

The thing with the V5 6000(with due respect to 3DFX) if I`m going to pay that price I want every possible latest technology on it ,not just speed &amp; to myself it`s just not worth it,there will be better cards out for about the same price with more hardware features onboard.

 

[NFS4]

True dat, but we shall see. We have the Radeon MAXX, Radeon 2, G800, and NV20 showing up in just a few short months. This is gonna be fun

 

[blurredvisionx]

Ex-squeeze me??? 3dfx is complaining of 3 iterations of the GeForce? For some reason, I seem to recall a Voodoo3 2000, Voodoo3 3000, and a Voodoo3 3500. Guess what? With these, all was done was alterations on the clocked speeds, and the memory slightly improved for better performance. Granted, the 3500 gave a hub with all kinds of gizmos, but at the extra price. The Geforce, GeforceDDR, Geforce 2, and Geforce2Ultra, are doing the same thing. Improving on memory technology, and upping the core and memory clocks. Do I even want to start on the Voodoo4 4500, Voodoo5 5500 and 6000? All 3dfx is doing there is adding processors on the same board, and selling at a higher price.

Can I get an amen??


EDIT: After posting this, I did realize that the Voodoo3 line 'kinda' came out at the same time, but the V5 6000 is well past the first release of the V5 5500.

 

[NFS4]

Well, the 3500TV came out a while after the 2000/3000

 

[Hardware]

And the V3500 was holy crap for us pal users!

 

[The Wildcard]

3dfx always cracks me up.

 

[Czar]

3dfxAlf

This is at least the second time you come here to excuse 3dfx for bubbas behavior. Who is stopping 3dfx from firing bubba?